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Abstract/Summary

Executive Summary
The CGIAR Research Program (CRP) on Grain Legumes (referred to as Grain Legumes) is one of 15 CRPs. The Grain Legumes is led by the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), which combines and coordinates the Research-for-Development (R4D) activities of eleven principal partners: four CGIAR centres (ICRISAT-lead centre, CIAT, ICARDA and IITA), a CGIAR Challenge Program (Generation), four major national agricultural research systems (EIAR, Ethiopia; EMBRAPA-Brazil, GDAR-Turkey and ICAR-India) and two USAID-supported legume Cooperative Research Support Programs, all of whom are leaders in grain legume research and development. Established in mid-2012, the program aimed to achieve five Intermediate Development Objectives (IDOs - Food Security, Income, Nutrition & Health, Productivity and Environment). The program was structured around eight Product Lines (PL) (i.e. technological innovations) intersecting five Strategic Components (SC), but in 2015, it was restructured along a more R4D output model into eight Flagship Projects (FP): 1) Managing Productivity; 2) Trait determination; 3) Trait deployment; 4) Seed systems, post-harvest processing and nutrition; 5) Capacity-building and partnerships; 6) Knowledge, impacts, priorities and gender organisation; 7) Tools and platforms for genotyping and bioinformatics; and 8) Management. Five FPs focus on R4D; FPs 5 and 6 are considered cross-cutting; FP 8 has an overarching objective. Over the three year period since its inception in July 1012, Grain Legumes has had a total budget of $140 million.
The CRP Commissioned External Evaluation (CCEE) aims to provide an independent assessment of the Grain Legumes, including retrospective analyses of performance against the aims and objectives set out in the initial CRP proposal; and a forward-looking element that will examine the likelihood of success of the second funding phase. As such, the evaluation may guide decision-making internally by the Grain Legumes and externally by donors; as well as feeding into decisions on the next phase of CRPs, to start in 2017. Six criteria are being considered within the evaluation, from the point of view of the activity per se and the extent to which the CRP assists in the implementation of the activity: Relevance; Efficiency; Quality of science; Effectiveness; Impact; and Sustainability. Three cross-cutting issues: Gender, Capacity-building, and Partnerships, will be explored to gauge added value of the programme-integrating activities among participants and impact outcomes for its intended beneficiaries. The scope encompasses all activities, structures and institutions within the Grain Legumes.
This evaluation of Grain Legumes has been commissioned by CRP management, managed by a CRP staff member specifically provided with the authority to manage evaluations, and overseen by an oversight body, which is set up specifically for the evaluation and includes independent members. To ensure the confidentiality of participants in the evaluation, information, e.g. from interviews and surveys, is kept in a secure location. The evaluation will use a variety of methods to address the evaluation criteria, including semi-structured interviews of Grain Legumes researchers and stakeholders; country field visits; review of a sample of Grain Legumes projects; focus group discussions; self-evaluation exercises; short E-surveys; and an examination of documentation. The evaluation team consists of four independent evaluators looking specifically at the scope and focus of the CRP.
The initial evaluation and the inception report were prepared over a short time period; given the size, complexity and numbers of crops in the CRP, this mitigates against a clear cut outcome from the evaluation. A further shortcoming is the lack of “management and evaluation” data. The team has also had no access to an IEA Evaluation Analyst. These limitations reduce the team’s ability to collect and analyse information. Additionally, the Management Entity has still not provided the Evaluation Team with consolidated details of contacts within the CRP, of external partners, of meetings and other events suitable for capturing multiple actors/stakeholders for interview.
Key dates and activities in the evaluation include: late-April 2015 and ongoing: Desk-top review of research projects and SKYPE interviews with Product Line Coordinators and other key actors; May 2015: Country visit to INRA (Morocco) and IITA/INRAB (Benin); June 2015: Attend meeting in Montpelier and country visit to ICRISAT (India – Hyderabad and New Delhi); end June/July 2015: Country visit to Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda and Malawi; June2015: Grain Legumes scientist E-survey; July 2015: Data analysis and additional data collection as required; Draft report and recommendations circulated for comments; August 2015: Presentation of findings - to CGIAR in Hyderabad; Final report.
This inception report sets out the proposals of the independent evaluation team regarding the purpose, objectives and scope of the evaluation, its target audiences and use; the evaluation objectives and approach; and the timeline and work-plan. This final draft incorporates stakeholder comments on the first draft.